If you plan on head­ing to Lon­don for the 2012 Olympic Games here are a few Eti­quette Rules taken from an arti­cle writ­ten by the BBC

The national tourism agency has devel­oped a com­pre­hen­sive online resource to guide every­one from hote­liers to cab dri­vers in offer­ing the best cus­tomer ser­vice and meet­ing ‘cul­tural’ needs.

It offers advice rang­ing from how to pour wine for Argen­tini­ans to not wink­ing at peo­ple from Hong Kong. The big no-no is ask­ing a Cana­dian what part of Amer­ica they come from.

Exu­ber­ant welcome

Visit Britain says the UK is already rated fairly highly — 14th out of 50 — in the Nation Brands Index for the qual­ity of the wel­come would-be vis­i­tors believe they will get when they come here.

But key com­peti­tors such as Canada, Italy, Spain and the Nether­lands do better.

The Visit Britain research shows for­eign vis­i­tors often find Britain’s mix of cutting-edge moder­nity and rich cul­tural her­itage ”fas­ci­nat­ing” and ”excit­ing.” They see British peo­ple as ”hon­est,” ”funny,’ ”kind” and ”effi­cient” but in some cases they wish we offered a more exu­ber­ant welcome.

The tips have been writ­ten by Visit Britain staff, who are natives of the coun­tries fea­tured, and they have a wealth of insight into the places vis­i­tors come from. Here is a sample:

· A smil­ing Japan­ese per­son is not nec­es­sar­ily happy

The Japan­ese tend to smile when angry, embar­rassed, sad or dis­ap­pointed. They may think it rude if you talk to them with your hands in your pockets.

Avoid star­ing, as eye con­tact isn’t gen­er­ally con­sid­ered polite. While sit­ting, try not to show the bot­tom of your shoes. Avoid being late for things and blow­ing your nose in front of some­one is also likely to be con­sid­ered rude.

· Be care­ful how you pour wine for an Argentinian

The whole process involves a num­ber of social taboos and unless you under­stand them you could insult some­one. For exam­ple, pour­ing wine back­wards into a glass indi­cates hos­til­ity. Don’t be offended by Argen­tin­ian humour, which may mildly attack your cloth­ing or weight.

· Avoid wink­ing at some­one from Hong Kong

Wink­ing is often con­sid­ered a rude ges­ture. Point­ing with an index fin­ger is not advis­able as this is gen­er­ally used only for ani­mals. Point with your hand open. Hong Kong Chi­nese are very super­sti­tious: men­tion­ing fail­ure, poverty or death risks offence.

· Remem­ber Arabs are not used to being told what to do

Vis­i­tors from the United Arab Emi­rates can take great offence if you appear bossy. They appre­ci­ate being looked after by staff who have been trained to under­stand Arab cul­ture. For exam­ple, it is cul­tur­ally insen­si­tive to ask an Emi­rati whether they want bacon with their eggs or to include a half bot­tle of wine with the table d’hote menu.

· Do not be alarmed if South Africans announce that they were held up by robots

To a South African the word robot means traf­fic lights. ”Takkies” means train­ers, a bar­be­cue is a ‘braai’, and ”howzit” is an infor­mal way of say­ing hello. When in a social sit­u­a­tion with a South African do not place your thumb between your fore­fin­ger and your sec­ond fin­ger — it is an obscene gesture.

· Don’t ask a Brazil­ian per­sonal questions

Steer clear espe­cially of such issues as age, salary, or mar­riage to some­one from Brazil, Argentina’s fierce rival.

· Avoid phys­i­cal con­tact when first meet­ing some­one from India

Being touched or approached too closely in ini­tial meet­ings can be con­sid­ered offen­sive, even if the inten­tion is entirely inno­cent or friendly. Be tol­er­ant if Indi­ans at first seem impo­lite, noisy and impa­tient. This is partly the result of liv­ing in chaotic cities and envi­ron­ments. They usu­ally appre­ci­ate order­li­ness when they see it.

· When meet­ing Mex­i­cans it is best not to dis­cuss poverty, ille­gal aliens, earth­quakes or their 1845–6 war with America

Polite top­ics of con­ver­sa­tion would be Mex­i­can cul­ture, his­tory, art and muse­ums instead. When demon­strat­ing the height of some­thing, be aware that hold­ing the palm face down is reserved for ani­mals. Burp­ing out loud is con­sid­ered very rude.

· Never call a Cana­dian an American

Cana­di­ans may take offence if labelled Amer­i­can. Some Cana­di­ans get so annoyed about being mis­taken for US cit­i­zens they iden­tify them­selves by wear­ing a maple leaf as pin badge or as a sym­bol on their clothing.

· Do not take offence if an Aus­tralian or a New Zealan­der makes a joke about ”Poms”

It is more of a friendly endear­ment than an intended insult.

· Avoid say­ing ”thank you” to a Chi­nese compliment

Instead, politely deny a com­pli­ment to show humil­ity. If you com­pli­ment a Chi­nese per­son, expect a denial in reply. The Chi­nese are famous for com­mu­ni­cat­ing by “Say­ing it with­out say­ing it.” You will have to learn to read between the lines. Use only black and white mate­ri­als for pre­sen­ta­tions, as colours have sig­nif­i­cant mean­ings in Chi­nese culture.

· When accept­ing thanks Kore­ans will typ­i­cally say “No, no ”

The remark should be inter­preted as “You are welcome”.

· Don’t snap your fin­gers if you are with a Bel­gian. It may be inter­preted as impolite

And avoid dis­cussing per­sonal mat­ters or lin­guis­tic and polit­i­cal divi­sions within Bel­gium between Dutch and French speakers.

· Never imply Poles drink excessively

Despite stereo­types, Poles are not large con­sumers of alco­hol and exces­sive drink­ing is frowned upon.

Sandie Dawe MBE, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Visit Britain, said: ”Over­seas vis­i­tors spend more than £16 bil­lion a year in Britain, con­tribut­ing mas­sively to our econ­omy and sup­port­ing jobs across the country.

“So giv­ing our for­eign vis­i­tors a friendly wel­come is absolutely vital to our econ­omy. With hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple think­ing of com­ing to Britain in the run up to the Olympic and Par­a­lympic Games in 2012, this new advice is just one of the ways that Visit Britain is help­ing the tourism indus­try care for their cus­tomers — wher­ever they come from.”

Air­line eti­quette don’t leave home with­out it. Sun­day evening a Ghana bound flight was escorted back to Dulles Inter­na­tional Air­port escorted by U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets after an argu­ment broke out. Appar­ently, a pas­sen­ger reclined his seat and was a lit­tle too close for com­fort to the pas­sen­ger behind him. Instead of ask­ing the reclin­ing pas­sen­ger to move his seat for­ward, he decided to take mat­ters into his own hands by strik­ing the reclin­ing passenger.

Hit­ting some­one is NEVER the answer espe­cially when you are thou­sands of miles in the air. Here are a few air­line eti­quette tips to keep in mind before, dur­ing and after your flight:

Board­ing:

Do not linger in the aisle. Find your seat and take it.

If you are putting a coat in the over­head bin, put it on top of your suit­case. By doing this, you are leav­ing room for other people.

Store your items in the over­head clos­est to your seat. If you use one near the front, then peo­ple behind you will have to wait to exit until you retrieve your belongings.

In Flight:

Do not force your con­ver­sa­tion on the per­son sit­ting next to you.

Do not grab the seat in front of you when you are getting up.

Do not kick the seat in front of you. Par­ents should watch their chil­dren to make sure they do not do this.

If you are wear­ing head­phones, make sure you are the only one who can hear.

Donâ€™t hog up the arm rests. Choose one.

When reclin­ing your seat — yes, you do have the right to recline your seat how­ever, if you see the per­son behind you is tall, you may not want to recline all the way back to leave them some space. As I men­tioned, it is your right, but I am sure the per­son behind you would appreciate it.

When using the bath­rooms remem­ber they are not a dress­ing room or a makeup station.

Leav­ing the Flight:

Wait your turn. Do not be the first to get out of your seat unless you are in the first few rows.

If some­one is fac­ing a tight con­nec­tion, let them off first.

If some­one needs help col­lect­ing their items from the over­head, help them.

Prac­tic­ing a lit­tle civil­ity will ensure that we all fly the friendly skies.

Here is a great arti­cle by: Rogue Par­rish, Demand Media writ­ten for USA Today I thought you would enjoy.

Wardrobe

Women busi­ness trav­el­ers should wear a high-quality dress or skirted suit in a solid color, as Jeanette S. Mar­tin and Lil­lian H. Chaney rec­om­mend in “Global Busi­ness Eti­quette: A Guide To Inter­na­tional Com­mu­ni­ca­tion And Cus­toms.” Ann Sabath in “Inter­na­tional Busi­ness Eti­quette: Europe” notes the impor­tance of chic clothes and makeup in France; going for a tai­lored look in Aus­tria; min­i­mal acces­sories in Den­mark; and wear­ing dark col­ors in Germany.

What to Avoid

When plan­ning your wardrobe, avoid pantsuits, very high heels or boots and cos­tume jew­elry. “Global Busi­ness Eti­quette” notes that business-casual attire, although pop­u­lar in the 1990s, pre­sented “spe­cial prob­lems for women,” par­tic­u­larly those want­ing to advance to man­age­ment, where they are less likely to be taken seri­ously. John T. Mol­loy, author of “New Women’s Dress for Suc­cess,” rec­om­mends that women pur­chase expen­sive business-casual attire in a tra­di­tional style, to avoid los­ing author­ity with col­leagues and new acquaintances.

Geog­ra­phy

South­east Asian coun­tries with high heat and humid­ity dic­tate the wear­ing of nat­ural fab­rics, while con­ser­v­a­tive dresses and suits rule the day in Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. In Arab coun­tries, women should wear loose-fitting dresses that cover the arms. Mar­tin and Chaney note that in Africa, dress is some­what more for­mal in the English-speaking coun­tries and less for­mal in nations where French is the busi­ness lan­guage. Busi­ness attire is exec­u­tive casual in Aus­tralia and New Zealand, though more relaxed in the South­ern Hemi­sphere sum­mer. Use high-end fash­ion for vis­its to South America.

Prepa­ra­tion

If you plan to visit churches, mosques or tem­ples as part of your busi­ness itin­er­ary or dur­ing your free time, bring scarves, blouses that cover the upper arms and closed-toe shoes. “Global Busi­ness Eti­quette” rec­om­mends that when vis­it­ing Europe, you should bring good jew­elry; before vis­it­ing an area with public-safety issues, how­ever, leave jew­elry home to avoid attract­ing crim­i­nal attention.

Expert Insight

The more women inter­act with peo­ple and col­leagues in host nations, “the more they will increase their knowl­edge” of appro­pri­ate norms and behav­iors, note Mar­tin and Chaney, who also men­tion that in some locales women in busi­ness have a curios­ity fac­tor and “can gain access to higher-level man­agers more eas­ily than men.” It also helps to net­work with men­tors and expa­tri­ates, who can guide you in the many nuances of local busi­ness etiquette.

Con­sid­er­a­tions

Ann Sabath notes that busi­ness eti­quette for women may change depend­ing on the local view of women in posi­tions of busi­ness author­ity. In the Czech Repub­lic, where few women are in decision-making roles, you will win accep­tance with con­ser­v­a­tive dress and behav­ior. In Den­mark, by con­trast, women can feel free to ini­ti­ate meet­ings and social engage­ments with men. Sim­i­larly, women in China are likely to be accepted on equal terms, accord­ing to the U.S. Depart­ment of Commerce’s BuyUSA.gov site. Britain lies some­where in the mid­dle. British men may cling to tra­di­tional atti­tudes about women and roles, so don’t be defen­sive if you are addressed as “deary,” “love” or “darling.”

So Who Gets the Arm­rest?
Ethics and Eti­quette for Bad Behav­ior, Boors and Stinky Food In Coach at 30,000 Feet
By SCOTTMCCARTNEY

With the Hol­i­days around the cor­ner many of us will be trav­el­ing to spend hol­i­days with love ones. In an effort to keep finances under con­trol I have been asked ” Do we have to tip the house­keeper?, Do we have to tip the valet? What about the porter You get the idea.

The answer is yes. We must remem­ber most ser­vice provider jobs wages are gen­er­ally low and count on tips. Here is a video of my appear­ance on the Smart Show with Henry Dittman dis­cussing Tip­ping Eti­quette. Although The Smart Show is geared towards Busi­ness Trav­el­ers, the eti­quette rules do not change.

Jules Hirst is an eti­quette instruc­tor based in Los Ange­les, who believes it is never too late to make a last­ing impres­sion. She teaches classes for chil­dren, teens and adults. She is Pres­i­dent of For A Jul Pro­duc­tions, a wed­ding and event plan­ning com­pany. Learn more at www.juleshirst.com. She also is head of Hearts For The City, a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion teach­ing eti­quette and social skills to under­priv­i­leged chil­dren, fos­ter chil­dren and peo­ple re-entering the workforce.